Dannielynn Birkhead is honoring her late mom Anna Nicole Smith for the Kentucky Derby.
On the eve of the 2025 event, Birkhead wore her mom's dress to the annual Barnstable Brown Gala on May 2. Her mom wore the same gown - a floor-length black dress with crystal-adorned front and back straps - to the same gala in 2004.
"Dannielynn is wearing Anna Nicole's dress that she wore 21 years ago to this same event. Life full circle. She said she chose the dress because it was her Mom's and 'super cool,' " the 18-year-old's dad Larry Birkhead wrote on Instagram.
Since its inception in 1989, the star-studded Barnstable Brown Gala has donated more than $21 million for diabetes treatment and research from the proceeds of the annual party.
The affair is hosted by local philanthropist Patricia Barnstable-Brown and her son Chris Barnstable-Brown at the family's private mansion in Louisville, Kentucky, where the derby takes place.
Smith's ex-boyfriend, a professional photographer, opened up to People magazine about watching his daughter wear the dress, which had been in storage "for years."
"It was emotional because the last time I saw that dress was on Anna," Birkhead said.
The Kentucky native, who met Smith at the Barnstable Gala in 2003, a year before she originally wore the dress, added that when his daughter "was a little girl, she walked over and she put her hand on the dress and now that she's actually old enough to wear it, it just seems surreal that we're at this moment."
The father-daughter duo has famously attended the Kentucky Derby - typically their annual public outing - since the latter was three years old, but Birkhead, 52, revealed that their yearly date "was really born out of the babysitter cancelling on me the first year I brought her."
This year's attendance comes 18 years after Smith's death at 39 sent shockwaves through the world, from her little-known hometown to Hollywood.
On Feb. 8, 2007, Smith collapsed in a hotel room at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood in Florida and later died at a hospital.
According to an autopsy obtained by CNN and performed by the Broward County Medical Examiner's office in Fort Lauderdale, Smith's death was ruled an accident.
Dannielynn's dad said the dress is "a little edgier" than her other wardrobe choices, telling the entertainment outlet that he spends "over $200,000 in storage bills" to preserve Smith's items.
"I think she's doing a fashion experiment for herself," Birkhead told People. "Also, I think it's really meaningful for her to wear. I'm just glad she's going through and starting to wear some of (Smith's clothes) because she could literally pick out an outfit a day for the rest of her life and never wear the same thing twice with everything."
He continued: "(I) just hope that she would appreciate some of these things someday, she's just now starting to get into the curiosity of some of the fashion and things in her mom's world."
Contributing: Kirby Adams, Louisville Courier Journal; Erin Jensen, USA TODAY
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